Putting the Brakes on Health Care Fraud

With its aging, affluent population, South Florida is ground zero for the multi-billion-dollar criminal industry of health care fraud. Few cases illustrate the depth of the problem—and our efforts to fight it—more than Operation Universal Money Fast.

Nov 05, 2012 11:00 AM

Putting the Brakes on Health Care Fraud

Ramon Fonseca, Orlin M. Tamayo Quinonez, and Juan Carraleroare wanted for allegedly conspiring in a scheme to defraud the Medicare program out of tens of millions of dollars.

With its aging, affluent population, South Florida is ground zero for the multi-billion-dollar criminal industry of health care fraud. Few cases illustrate the depth of the problem—and our efforts to fight it—more than Operation Universal Money Fast.

The case involved a massive, sophisticated fraud against Medicare and private insurance companies by scammers who set up more than a dozen fake clinics across five states and submitted tens of millions of dollars in bogus claims related primarily to HIV infusion therapy. Using stolen identities and bribing physicians to lend an air of legitimacy to the fraud, the thieves bilked the system for an estimated $70 million before we dismantled the enterprise.

The ringleader of scheme received a record sentence for health care fraud of 22 years in prison, and nine other defendants were also sentenced to significant terms...but three remaining subjects in the case remain at large.